by Chris Kling

Created on: May 16, 2008

Look, up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! - no, it's SUPER DELEGATE!

In this Orwellian world of ours, wars are fought "pre-emptively", the wholesale slaughter of human life is brokered by "Family Planning Clinics" and millionaire candidates vie to land a job that pays $400,000.00 per year, the presumptive Republican candidate for the President of the US became the Republican front-runner by winning contests with the help of Democrats and Independents in early front-loaded primaries and caucuses; And now, the "people's party", the Democrats - in their effort to "look out for the little people", brings us "super delegates".

According to Wikipedia.com, "'Superdelegate' is an informal term commonly used for some of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention, the presidential nominating convention of the United States Democratic Party."

"Unlike most convention delegates, the superdelegates are not selected based on the party primaries and caucuses in each U.S. state, in which voters choose among candidates for the party's presidential nomination. Instead, most of the superdelegates are seated automatically, based solely on their status as current or former party leaders and elected officials ("PLEOs"). Others are chosen during the primary season. All the superdelegates are free to support any candidate for the nomination."

Understanding the role of the superdelegate, however, is predicated upon understanding the process by which the political parties elect their candidates for President of the United States. The Encyclopeadia Britannica states that, "To secure a party's nomination, a candidate must win the votes of a majority of the delegates attending the convention" and that "More than 4,000 delegates attend the Democratic convention, while the Republican convention usually comprises some 2,500 delegates". [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-231552/preside ncy-of-the-United-States-of-America]. Sounds straightforward, right?

But how are delegates selected to attend the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention?

Back to Britannica for the answer: "In most Republican primaries the candidate who wins the statewide popular vote is awarded all the state's delegates. By contrast, the Democratic Party requires that delegates be allocated proportionally to each candidate who wins at least 15 percent of the popular vote. It thus takes Democratic candidates longer than Republican candidates to amass the required majority."

But 1984 marks

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